Training the Triceps

Lots of people want that special definition and look certain muscles give them when properly developed. My personal favorite and the favorite of many is the triceps muscle. I'm going to tell you the trainer gold behind training this muscle.

1) If you have excess body fat, you won't see your muscles underneath. This is a discussion for another day, so I'm going to assume you're at a lower level of body fat, or will be one day, and how to now get your triceps to look the way you want.

2) Train your triceps with at least 48 hours in between session at least twice a week, preferably three. This is the guideline for exercising every muscle group, but it had to be said.

3) The main exercise you should focus on for the triceps is the overhead triceps extension. It's the best in my opinion and the research backs that.

4) The triceps has three heads: the medial head, lateral head, and long head. Training the triceps isn't about doing different exercises to train each of the heads, it's all about intensity. To best train the medial head, stick to a weight you can only lift properly about 10-12 times, for the lateral head stick to 8-10 reps, and for the long head stick to a weight you can lift properly 4-6 times.  Usually a 5-10 pound difference in weight is enough to satisfy this. So for example, you could do an overhead tricep extension 12 times with a 15 pound weight, 8 times with a 20 pound weight, and 5 times with a 25 pound weight.

5) Make sure you rest 30 seconds to 2 minutes in between sets.

There you have it! Your guide to amazing triceps! It takes a few weeks to start seeing results, but if you stick to these guidelines, you'll have the triceps you've always wanted.

Happy training!
Cassandra Wyzik
B.S. - ACSM Certified Personal Trainer
www.FitToYouBrevard.com